Fracking, Nuclear and Wind: Which Would You Rather Have in Your Backyard?

1st November 2017

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If you’re thinking wind farm, two thirds of the British public agree with you. Brand new polling from 10:10 has just revealed that 65% of the British public would be happy to live next to a wind farm.

But a massive 61% of us don’t want to live that near a fracking site, and 62% don’t want to live that close to a small modular nuclear reactor (that’s a mini version of your standard nuclear reactor). Which kind of makes sense.

Conservative and Labour voters actually agree on this - 76% of Labour voters would live near a wind farm, but so would over half of Conservative voters - 57%.

When the community owns a wind turbine, it’s even more popular. Only 17% of people would be unhappy living near a community wind farm - that’s 7% less than a commercial one.

Unfortunately, government policy really doesn’t match up with how people feel.

They’ve all but banned onshore wind power in England. They’ve tied it up in red tape so that it’s virtually impossible to get planning permission. If that wasn’t enough, they’ve cut off financial support as well. The reason? They say people don’t want it in their backyard.

At the same time they’ve been forcing fracking on communities that have explicitly rejected it.  And they’re pouring hundreds of millions into small modular nuclear reactors.

10:10 are calling the government out and campaigning to support onshore wind. You can sign up to join their campaign here. 

This blog was written by our climate activist pals over at 10:10. Find out more about the great work they do here.